Men and Angels - Hardcover

s husband is in France. She has stayed behind in their small college town with her two young children -- whom she loves with an intensity that awes her -- to finish writing the catalogue for a major exhibition of the work of American Impressionist painter Caroline Watson. As she delves into Caroline's life, Anne sees a side of "mother love" she'd never fathomed. Meanwhile, Anne's live-in babysitter, Laura Post, is obsessed with a different kind of love. She sees herself as one of God's chosen and believes she has been sent to "save" Anne and her children, whether they want it or not . . .

Gordon introduces the reader to women who form an "enabling chain": Caroline imparts strength to her daughter-in-law Jane, who befriends Anne, who cheers up teenage babysitter Laura. But when Laura becomes "born again" and tries to "save" Anne, a successful woman who nonetheless has a streak of self-loathing, disaster looms. Although Anne's self-pity wearies, as a whole the book succeeds "on the strength of Gordon's plunging insights into the nature of mother love, family relationships, ambition and responsibility," PW observed.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.